Ready to play Millennial Mad Libs? Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig has teamed up with Jaden Smith, Jude Law, and the Kid Mero to make an anime series for Netflix. It’s called Neo Yokio, and according to Koenig it’s about “the greatest city in the world.”
Koenig announced the project Tuesday afternoon on Twitter by sharing screenshots from the show. As Stereogum points out, though, Jude Law actually mentioned Neo Yokio during a June 2016 interview, but no one knew what he was talking about at the time. Law said: “I think Jaden Smith is playing this little boy called Kai in it, and I’m his butler. I’m this kind of huge robot butler called Charles, who is also a rocket ship. And it takes place in a New York that is sort of combined with Tokyo in the future.”
NEO YOKIO IS THE GREATEST CITY IN THE WORLD. 🙏 to Studio Deen, Production IG, Jaden Smith, Kazuhiro Furuhashi & many more pic.twitter.com/dI88h7ZhPa
— Ezra Koenig (@arzE) September 5, 2017
— Ezra Koenig (@arzE) September 5, 2017
The official Instagram account for the series launched with nine images that tile out to depict the futuristic city’s skyline. And there’s a little Easter egg, too: Each tile is a two-photo set, and the second image is actually a video clip from the series. In the videos, you get glimpses of what the show might look and feel like—a jaded teen sitting on a bench while a tennis ball gets hit back and forth, a TV commercial from the Board of Tourism, people floating around in bubbles in “the sea beneath 14th street.” It looks… tight.
The Kid Mero (of Viceland’s Desus and Mero) confirmed his involvement in the project in a tweet.
“YEAH THATS RIGHT WE DOIN ANIME NOW,” he wrote Tuesday afternoon. “CATCH UP STAY TUNED DONT WATCH ME WATCH TV.”
🔥🔥🔥🔥 YEAH THATS RIGHT WE DOIN ANIME NOW CATCH UP STAY TUNED DONT WATCH ME WATCH TV (BY TV I MEAN NEO YOKIO) https://t.co/Z9RwAQTKkg
— THE KID MERO 🇩🇴 (@THEKIDMERO) September 5, 2017
It’s like celebrity weird Twitter got together and 420-created the ultimate TV pitch.
Neo Yokio is set to premiere on Netflix Sept. 22.
